There remains confusion in A Tramp Abroad as to exactly where Mark Twain and Harris (Joe Twichell) were, Leukerbad or Leuk. It's my opinion that they were in Leukerbad if only because he makes the statement on leaving the town that "Next morning, early, we drove to the Rhone valley and took the train for Visp". If Leuk, they would not have needed to drive the Rhone Valley.
August 24 Saturday – The pair set off with an old guide and climbed on foot up through the pass, coming down a precipitous trail to the village of Leuk[erbad] In his notebook Sam put the time at 3:30, a hike of seven hours. It was a “raw and rainy night”; Sam missed “our library fire”
August 23 Friday – Sam and Twichell said goodbye to the family and left Interlaken.
August 22 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
At Jungfrau Hotel, Interlaken—Superb view of the Jungfrau.
Confounded crow woke us all up at daylight.
Set your umbrellas up on these polished wood floors, down it goes. Step suddenly on them, down you go. The lowest snow on the Jf seems but little above the valley level [drawing inserted] [MTNJ 2: 141].
Twain and Joseph Twichell joined Twain's family in Lucerne August 12, 1878. They stayed at the Schweitzerhof Hotel until August 21. Twain returned to Lucerne in August of 1897. (See Baden to Lucerne)
From Page 260-1 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891:
August 10 Saturday – In the morning the men explored Dilsburg Castle [Rodney 103]. Sam and Joe started back to Baden Baden by train. They took a swift raft ride of the lower river to Heidelberg, plowing the raft into a bridge [103]. “Blazing hot in train.” They stopped at Friedrich [note: I can find no reference to what or where is Friedrich] . From Sam’s notebook:
Friday, August 9, 1878 – Twichell and Sam took a boat from Heilbronn for a trip down the Neckar River, stopping for beer and chicken at Jagtfeldt, then continuing toward Hirschhorn in a new and smaller boat [MTNJ 2: 132].
Sam’s notebook:
“Hasshersheim (?) town where we tarried & took beer & H [Twichell] went swimming above where 25 girls were & was warned away. Below this town on right bank, 200 ft up on top of the steep bank, castle of Hornberg, high old vine clad walls enclosing trees, & one peaked tall tower 75 ft high” [2: 132-3].
Thursday, August 8, 1878 – Joe and Sam took the train (See the Elsenz Valley Railway) up the river valley to Wimpfen. Mark Twain describes the visit to Heilbronn in A Tramp Abroad:
Tuesday, August 6, 1878 – Clemens and Twichell walked from Allerheiligen to Oppenau, Germany, ten miles [MTNJ 2: 47, 129]. They then took a train from Oppenau to Heidelberg “through clouds of dust” [129].